Filling up at a supermarket petrol station should cost you less after a price war broke out between major chains.

Supermarket giant Tesco confirmed it would slash the price of fuel by up to 2p per litre - which came into effect yesterday evening.

Tesco’s network of 500 filling stations - including eight on Teesside - is the largest of all UK supermarkets.

And Asda has also pledged it would not charge more than 105.7p per litre on petrol, and 106.7p on a litre of diesel, making it cheaper than its rival on Teesside.

This came a week after Morrisons announced a similar price cut.

Sainsbury’s were also expected to lower its prices today.

But while it has welcomed the reduction, the RAC has said it should have come sooner.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “A 2p a litre supermarket cut in the price of petrol and diesel from a major supermarket is of course good news for motorists, it’s just a shame it didn’t come sooner.

“We wonder how long motorists would have had to wait for a decent forecourt cut had the RAC not drawn attention to the fact that wholesale fuel costs had reduced substantially in the last month.

“This price cut takes us back to a supermarket price that was last seen in early May.”

ASDA South Bank petrol prices

Pictures taken today show that Asda is marginally cheaper than Tesco - charging 105.7p for unleaded and 106.7p for diesel at its South Bank store.

It is 0.2p more expensive at the nearby Tesco superstore on the Trunk Road.

Announcing the cuts, Andy Peake, Asda’s senior director for petrol, said: “It’s the start of the summer holidays and we know families will be getting out and about all across the country which is why we’re dropping the price of fuel.

“At Asda we always pass on any savings we can make to our customers, so it’s great to see that costs have dropped despite early predictions that the cost of fuel would increase following the outcome of the EU Referendum.”

And Peter Cattell, fuel director for Tesco said: “We know that lots of customers will have plans for the summer holidays, so we’re dropping the price of our fuel to help them enjoy it even more.

“This reduction of up to 2p per litre on petrol and diesel at all our 500 petrol filing stations, will mean millions of customers save money by shopping at Tesco.”